Pringles 2 MSL - Tiebreakers + Wildcard

Yesterday were the tiebreakers for the sadest MSL to date. It's not that it's that bad, don't get me wrong, but BOXER going 2-0 in his group, looking in great shape (enough to take it all) and then announcing an early retirement is heart-breaking. Because of this, the Group B will now play for the first place and the losers of today's games will get another shot at the Final 8 in a Wildcard set-up of games.

Bifrost landed at the 5 o'clock main expansion while Savior spawned at 1 o'clock. Savior opened with a 9 Hatchery at his natural followed by a Pool and an early gas. His rather unfriendly neighbor opted for a wall-in into fast Factory. Savior scouted fairly early with his drone to spot any attempt at a BBS build but found nothing, since there wasn't anything to find.

Fast-forwarding through the boring part that was the beginning, Savior techs to Spire with only 2 Hatcheries and successfuly blocks Bifrost's attempt at an early vulture harassment. But Bifrost had other plans. His early Vultures allowed him to take his natural really quickly without having to worry about Zergling raids. Suspecting the Mutalisks, Bifrost quickly built an Armory and an E-bay to defend against these ugly creatures.

Soon afterwards, Savior began to harass the Terran player like there was no tomorrow, constantly killing off his Goliaths while still getting some SCV kills. He even killed Bifrost's natural expansion. After some well-done harassment by the Maestro, Bifrost had no more Goliaths left, barely any SCVs and sure enough, no money. He GG'd and silently cursed at Arcadia 2 for his defeat.

Bifrost(T) < Savior(Z)

As you can see, the TvZ nightmare that is Arcadia 2 is still rampaging the MSL. This map's TvZ stats are now 1-11. Even though Bifrost came with a well timed build, There was nothing he could do to stop Savior's swarm of Mutalisks.

Group B Tiebreaker

Nal_rA(P) vs SiLvEr(Z) @ New Peaks Of Beakdu

Now make sure you have a bag of pop-corn and a beer because what you're about to read will blow your mind. Nal_rA warped in at 1 while Silver spawned at 7'oclock. Silver went for a traditional fast expansion build with is 12th Drone while Nal_rA went for a Forge first build into a fast expansion of his own. With some sweet Probe micro, Nal_rA was able to delay Silver's Hatchery, his pool and hell, he even killed a Drone!

Then a confident Nal_rA maynarded his Probes towards his expansion while warping in a Gateway and an Assimilator. He had 2 Cannons defending his expansion and another one coming up. Silver simply morphed Zerlings (about 16) and went all-in. With only 2 Cannons to defend, Nal_rA lost all his Probes. He managed to train a Zealot at the end but it was soundly knocked out. Nal_rA GG'd.

Nal_rA(P) < SiLvEr(Z)

Welcome to the conundrum that is Nal_rA; part 'OMG, he is so good and creative ARGH SEXUAL TENSION!!!!', part 'Where the hell did that come from?'. Today we obviously witnessed the latter. There's nothing more to say about this game, I'm just sharing my disappointment. SiLvEr reacted really well so all props to him.

Group C Tiebreaker

Chojja(Z) vs Jju(Z) @ Longinus

Everyone remembers their last encounter? It was during the last ShinHan OSL where Chojja easily won 3-0 over a very pissed off Jju. Well today was Jju's chance at a revenge! Chojja spawned at 11 o'clock while Jju spawned at 6. Jju went for a quick 9 Pool build with a fast gas for Speedlings while Chojja went for a fast expansion. Jju's Zerglings were obviously there really quickly so Chojja had to cancel his morphing Hatchery.

From there, Jju just harassed Drones and killed a morphing Sunken, allowing him to do more damage. Jju already had a Spire while Chojja was desperately trying to get an evolution chamber up. Noticing how far behind he was, Chojja GG'd with a huge grin on his face.

Chojja(Z) < Jju(Z)

Eye-for-an-eye certainly was Jju's game plan today. He beat Chojja in a very similar way that he himself lost to during their previous encounter. And yea, another quick and one-sided game.

Group D Tiebreaker

Kingdom(P) vs NaDa(T) @ Blitz

This is the last game for the Tie-breakers. So let's get to the point! NaDa landed at 1 o'clock while Kingdom warped in at 11 o'clock. NaDa decided to do a pretty odd build as he didn't quite fast expanded, but didn't take his gas either. He walled-in and built another Supply Depot. Meanwhile, Kingdom was more confident and went for a fast expansion build. Seeing that he didn't have to fear any rushing, NaDa mirrored his opponent's move by getting an expansion of his own.

Accepting the Challenge, Kingdom answered by another expansion, this time at the 7 o'clock expansion. NaDa, never being the one to back down, answered by yet another expansion, this time at the 12:30 o'clock expansion. The Devil Toss then replied with a 4th nexus at the Mineral only expansion on his side of the map. He then proceeded to make a lot of Gateways and start the macro war. NaDa only had 2 Factories with 4 others building at his 3rd base. NaDa decided he was better off defending his younger expansion. Mistake.

Kingdom decided to take a page out of Pusan's book and go Spirit Protoss on NaDa. While constantly attacking NaDa on two sides (natural and 3rd base), Kingdom took the rest of the ground accessable expansions and simply hammered NaDa with constant waves of Zealots, Dragoons and Templars. NaDa desperately tried to harass one Kingdom's many expansion until he reached a dead-end, filled with Dragoons and Zealots which finally gave him the answer he was looking for. He was screwed big time. He GG'd.

Kingdom(P) > NaDa(T)

Kingdom completely out-played NaDa on what was considered an heavily Terran favored map. Kingdom went into expansion-whore mode and there was little NaDa could do about, considering his poor start.

Wildcard Game 1

Bifrost(T) vs Nal_rA(P) @ Blitz

Nal_rA now had a chance to redeem himself after his embarassing performance against SiLvEr. So Nal_rA warped at the 11 o'clock starting location while Bifrost safely landed at 1. In contrast to the previous PvT played on this map, both players opted for safe builds. Nal_rA decided to go with a 1 Gateway and Robotics into an expansion while his opponent decided it was wise to harass with Dropships filled with Tanks and Vultures. Due to bad building placement, Biforst's drops were surprisingly effective as Nal_rA lost a lot of units on the first drop attemp on his main.

Bifrost constantly tried to find holes into Nal_rA's defence and successfuly did so. Once he spotted Nal_rA newly warped Nexus at 7 o'clock, Bifrost easily killed it off with only 2 Tanks protected by a sea of mines. Fully knowing he was ahead, Bifrost decided to get a 3rd base and he expanded at the 12:30 expansion. Little did he know, that move gave Nal_rA the slack he needed to be back in this game. A lot like Kingdom, Nal_rA wisely took complete control of his side of the map leaving Bifrost to wonder what to do. Even if Bifrost was only 1 expansion behind, Nal_rA macro really was starting to kick in.

With a big army of Dragoons, Zealots and two Arbiters, Nal_rA was able to delay Bifrost's desperate attempt at a push, allowing the Lord of Dreams to get a scary amount of Carriers. Not much later, a completely overwhelmed Bifrost found his main under the siege of a big fleet of Carriers and recalled Dragoons. He simply GG'd.

Bifrost(T) < Nal_rA(P)

Even though Bifrost started really well by dealing a lot more damage than he bargained for, he was never really able to use the huge size of this map to his advantage. Nal_ra, however, did it to perfection and that's why he now has another shot at the next stage!

Wildcard Game 2

Chojja(Z) vs NaDa(T) @ Arcadia 2

Even if Arcadia 2 is now known to be extremely hard for Terrans in TvZ, this game was meant to be an upset. Chojja is officially a slumping player and NaDa is slowly returning to his old-self. The game started with NaDa landing at 7 o'clock while Chojja spread his creep around the 11 o'clock starting location. NaDa went for a standard 2 Barracks build while Chojja did an even more standard build with an Hatchery at his mineral only expansion.

Seeing that, a bell rang in NaDa's head. He decided to go for a quick Tank push à la GoodFriend vs July on Forte. With a perfectly timed attack, NaDa was able to catch Chojja off-guard with only Sunkens to defend. While the Tanks were easily tearing the Sunkens apart, Chojja desperately tried to tech to Lurkers. Suspecting this, NaDa didn't use many scans on Chojja's base and he was able to quickly eradicate the burrowed lurkers.With nothing else to fight with, Chojja shook his head and typed out.

Chojja(Z) < NaDa(T)

NaDa did it! He won a TvZ on Arcadia with the oldest TvZ tech known to man. Judging by Chojja's performance lately, I think it's safe to say that he is officially slumping, again.

Wildcard Final Game

Nal_rA(P) vs NaDa(T) @ Longinus

So here is the final game of the day. I'm running out of ideas for original intros, I'll just get to it. NaDa landed at the 11 o'clock position while Nal_rA warped in at 6 o'clock. NaDa started with the now standard FD Terran build while Nal_rA went for a very fast 2 gate Dragoons build (gate 10, core 13, gate 15, pylon 15). While upgrading his range, Nal_rA went on the offensive. He managed to pick out a NaDa's Tank and most of his Marines. NaDa then tried to protect his newly built natural expansion with a mine field.

While carefully making sure he didn't step on any mines, Nal_rA plan was finally revealed. He had an hidden Robotics Facility near NaDa's base. Loading and unloading his Dragoons and Reaver into NaDa's base, Nal_rA managed to kill a lot of SCVs aswell as many Tanks.

With constant Reaver harassment, Nal_rA was able to bring NaDa's SCVs to the brink of extinction. With nothing left to fight with, a babbling NaDa typed out.

Nal_rA(P) > NaDa(T)

Awesome execution by Nal_rA, and really poor foresight by NaDa. Losing his Tank really wasn't bright. He was up against 4 Dragoons with 6 Marines and a Tank and didn't see it coming? Nal_rA deserved to win this game.

kingdom game impressed me. NaDa blocked very very well like 5 times, but the macro involved in that game was just hacklike.

as for the silver vs nal_ra game a big LOL, could silver even have made a 3rd hatchery on his expo? i think his second hatch like blocked the biuld location and he also lost a drone lol. he was so happy he won it was so funny that game. also jju when he won he was ahppy, but also chojja and nal_ra looked happy for losing, which is weird. these sets were all about pvt and tvp, the rest sort of disappointed.

Great job on those reports, but having eight arms *is* an advantage (:

Someday, you’re going to fuck up so magnificently, so ambitiously, so overwhelmingly that the sky will light up and the moons will spin and the gods themselves will shit comets with glee. And I just hope I’m still around to see it.